Miami Dade Real Estate Scoop

Pinecrest Adopt-a-Tree Program

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:50:37 -0400

Are you a Pinecrest resident wanting a tree on the swale outside your property? Although the right-of-way property is not legally the homeowner's, the public swale is to be maintained by the homeowner. And who doesn't want to keep their surroundings looking pretty?

Pinecrest has an Adopt-a-Tree program which provides trees at low-bid prices for interested homeowners. Pinecrest has been designated as a Tree City, USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for their commitment to community forestry. The Village of Pinecrest has planted over 10,000 trees since 1997. Not shabby at all.

If you'd like more information about the Pinecrest Adopt-a-Tree program, click on the link.

And remember that Miami-Dade County still has it's own program where they give two trees per year to homeowners of single family or townhome properties in the county.

Maggie Dokic, SFR is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Florida selling residential real estate in Miami, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Coral Gables, Gables by the Sea, High Pines, the Redland and other select areas of SW Miami-Dade County.

Maggie has earned her SFR certification to be able to better serve the needs of her customers in today's non-traditional real estate market. SFR is a Short Sale, Foreclosure Resource Specialist. Designees have been trained to understand the highly specialized options available to Sellers facing short sales & foreclosures and Buyers looking to buy them.

For more information on our local real estate market, or to see or sell a home in Miami, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Coral Gables or the Redland, visit my Miami Real Estate blog or contact me at Maggie (at) TheBlogThatAteMiami (dot) com.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Old Cutler Road Construction Will Cause Delays

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:36:52 -0400

Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay residents who use Old Cutler Road please note that it will be shut down at the end of July for construction. The South Florida Water Management District will be installing a flow-way tunnel beneath Old Cutler Road and this will impact the stretch between SW 156th Street and SW 162nd Street.

The road will be open to local traffic only. If you don’t live in the area, make plans for a different route during construction. SFWMD has stated that the project will take two weeks only and it is slated to begin no earlier than July 26th. Utility services and the popular bike path on Old Cutler may be impacted as well so plan accordingly. Click here for more information.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Pinecrest Seizes Home. Maybe?

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:02 -0400

A citizen is fighting the Village of Pinecrest for improper seizure of her home. Or should I clarify and say, her property, as she does not live in the Pinecrest house.

I just read an interesting legal article about the case involving Zenaida Gomez and the Village of Pinecrest. Apparently Ms. Gomez purchased the Pinecrest home in 2006, in 2007 leased it to someone and in 2008 the Pinecrest police were called in to investigate some goings on in the home.

The police found that the Pinecrest home was being used for an illegal hydroponics lab (proving that the Redland doesn't have that market cornered and that upper scale neighborhoods are not immune to criminal activity, but I digress). Due to the activities going on at the home, the Village of Pinecrest proceeded to seize the home, through legal means.

The article is full of legalese and I have to admit that I couldn't finish it. It appears that the seizing authority (the Village of Pinecrest) has to prove that the owner of the house knew or had reasonable cause to know that the Pinecrest house was being used for criminal activity. They claim she leased the home without even so much as checking whether the driver's license presented by the tenant was valid.

I checked the home's history in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and found the sale in there. The home is in a great north Pinecrest location with multimillion dollar homes around. The home itself was move-in ready but needing updating according to the MLS remarks when it sold. It sold back in 2006 for $1,075,000 and according to a desktop appraisal I quickly did on it, might be worth in the neighborhood of $717K today, although that doesn't take into account the damage that is done to a home when it is used as a hydroponics facility.
In any event, I find the case interesting. Be cautious when renting your home and make sure you do background checks!

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Miami Home Buyers Find Homes Easier With New Toolbar

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:30:58 -0400

Are you a buyer looking for a home in Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, South Miami or the surrounding Miami area?

Would you like to have an upper hand while searching for homes on the internet?

Would you like to make your home search easier?

You can do this by downloading the Blog That Ate Miami Real Estate Toolbar. It's a small, little download that gives you a way to contact me on any home you find for sale on the internet, regardless of where you find it!

Imagine, one click and the information is sent to me so I can follow up on it for you. There's no need to keep a running list of homes to send me. Just click the Property Inquiry button when you find a home that interests you and the toolbar sends me the request. No matter what site you found the home listing at.

It's also a great portal to start your home Miami home search. Just click on the Homes for Sale button and search to your heart's delight, specifying your criteria, for your specific needs.

The toolbar also has a built-in search, local weather and a one-click Facebook log-in

It doesn't get any easier than that!

Click on the Free Download button to quickly install this great tool and make your home search easier today!

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Miami to Hold More Open Houses This Weekend

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:58:02 -0400

If you’ve been looking to buy a home in Miami and still haven’t found the one, I have some good news for you. This weekend marks the Florida Realtors’ Open House Weekend.

The association has coordinated for many homes to be held open this weekend throughout the state of Florida. You should be able to look around in your neighborhood of choice and find more homes than usual being held open. Look for the bright blue balloons like the ones in the picture above.

This is our last ditch effort to get those buyers looking to make the $8,000 home buyers credit into a contract before the deadline of April 30^th.

I’ll be holding this Homestead beauty open on Saturday, April 10^th, from Noon – 2:00pm.

Click on the picture below to see a tour of the home. It’s a winner!

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Finding Balance In Things

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:09:43 -0400

Over the weekend I accepted a Google Wave invitation from a friend. I visited for a while and became increasingly overwhelmed the more I read.

I commented on my FaceBook profile this past weekend that I was "teched" out and just wanted a hammock, a breeze and a book (not on Kindle). I then got off the computer and went fruit picking with the family, in our yard.

Sunday night I attended a Tweet Chat local Miami real estate professionals have been hosting and just minutes into it my internet connection started acting up. I will not lie and say I was upset. I welcomed the chance to get off the computer.

This morning I read an Inman article about a new social media tool. While reading it, I thought to myself, "another one?"

I have been fighting all these advances by just ignoring most of them. Or at least, not seeking them out. If someone lets me know about something they're finding really useful, I usually check it out though.

I know my life is different today because of technology. My real estate business is handled a certain way because of it as well. I like Active Rain and plan on using it a long time. But just, how much is enough?

It's never going to end. Developers will continue coming up with new things.

If we jump to check all these things out and invest a good amount of time in the evaluation, when do we have time for everything?

In the last week alone, I have heard about 6 or 7 platforms I wasn't familair with previously. The onslaught is constant. How do you handle it?

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Happy Easter Wishes

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:48:11 -0400

Wishing everyone a joyous holy-day filled with the Promise of new beginnings.

A Happy and Blessed Easter to all!

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

A Short Sale Gone Right

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:37:38 -0400

Yesterday I posted about the thanks I received from my sellers when their short sale finally closed.

Today I wanted to share the letter I sent the bank regarding the assigned loss mitigator.

We are always so quick to point out flaws. But it's much harder to make time for showing our appreciation.

Today I made time for such a thing. I believe that when I live my life being grateful for the good that happens, I live a better life.

I also think that those who do a job well, should be told, not just paid. And sometimes, their bosses should be told too.

Here is the email I sent to the bank today:

Dear Mr. XYZ,

I am writing to congratulate you on your employee, Emily ABC. I believe she is a tremendous asset to your department and the entire ABC Bank organization.

I have had the pleasure of working with Emily for the last 3 months. We worked together on the Mr. Seller loan, address 1234 NE 56th Drive, Miami, FL 12345 I was the listing agent for this short sale.

Prior to working with Emily, ABC Bank had me working with many different Loss Mitigators. I was never able to accomplish anything with any of them as most of my calls and emails went unreturned. Getting just the slightest bit of information, such as confirming that a document we had submitted had been received required the biggest of efforts and repeated attempts. It seems easy enough to tell someone that a paper was received, but when I tried to do it, I got nowhere.

Then along came Emily. She was friendly, polite, courteous and above all else, helpful and professional. If I called and left Emily a message, I could bet my bottom dollar that she would respond within hours. But usually, this wasn't even necessary as she picked up the phone most of the time!

If I emailed Emily, she got back to me with a prompt response. I am sure this kept each of us more productive than having to chase the other down.

There were times when you needed something and Emily would call me for it. This simple courtesy is almost unheard of in all my other short sale negotiations. I have never had a bank call me to tell me they need something. They usually wait until I call, track the LM down and then they bring it up. It certainly makes no sense to work this way, but that is what I am experiencing.

The bottom line is that it was a sheer pleasure working with Emily on this transaction. I wish all my transactions were handled so expeditiously and almost stress free. She deserves acknowledgement for a job extremely well done and you for having such a fine employee on your team.

Kudos to you both.

Sincerely,

Maggie Dokic

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Luxury Homes for our Miami Canine Friends

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:35:10 -0400

No, this is not my latest listing in Pinecrest. This is one of the cutest dog houses I've ever seen! I was driving west on 152^nd Street and had to do a 180 so I could appreciate these little homes closer. They impressed me to no end.

The luxury dog houses are created by Ricardo and Janeth. He is a master carpenter who specializes in custom yacht carpentry. As the luxury market had dwindled a bit, so did the amenities associated with it. In a moment of inspiration they decided to make custom homes for our furry friends.

My precious Fifi and Lola would love to live in any one of these homes. There's the little red shingled barn, a boat house with its crisp white paint, chimney stack and shiny golden anchor (and look at those porthole windows!), and the stone villa, with its textured walls, and windowed gable. Sooooo cute!

The attention to detail in these homes is impressive. To order your own custom home for your furry best friend, you can contact Ricardo or Janeth at 786.285.9431

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Pinecrest Bestowed Great Honor, Earned by Palmetto Senior H.S.

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:31:22 -0400

The Village of Pinecrest was one of only six cities in the U.S. hosting this guest. The guest? A rare original print of the United States Declaration of Independence that is on a traveling tour.

The visit was made possible by the students at Palmetto Senior High School, who were top participants in mock elections held across the nation's schools. The mock elections were put together by organizations wanting to foster an appreciation of the democratic process in students throughout America.

The students at Palmetto Sr. High embraced the event and in the process earned themselves the opportunity to have the rare document come for a visit. Way to go Palmetto!

Over 1500 people, including Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner and members of the Village Council, had the chance to see the document at the Pinecrest Branch Library. The document was also displayed at Palmetto Senior High School where hundreds of students were able to view it.

This is another fine example of the strong commitment of Pinecrest area educators. It's not without reason that the Pinecrest schools are tops in the county and beyond. Thank you teachers.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

High Pines – One of Miami’s Not-So-Hidden Gems

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:20:55 -0400

High Pines - A Neighborhood Introductionby Maggie Dokic, Broker Associate

The area of High Pines is highly regarded in Miami. Its close proximity to main thoroughfares, great schools, shopping, restaurants and Miami entertainment venues make it a winner. All this while still retaining its residential neighborhood feel.

High Pines is comfortably nestled between South Miami, Coral Gables and the Ponce / Davis area. It is bordered by Sunset Drive (SW 72 Street) to the north and SW 80^th Street (Davis Road) a mere half mile distance. On the east is Schoolhouse Road (SW 52nd Avenue)and half a mile to the west, Red Road (SW 57^th Avenue).

High Pines flourished after World War II when soldiers returning to Miami started working in Holsum Bakery, one of Miami's largest employers at the time. The bakery was situated on US 1, right behind the intersection of Sunset Drive and Red Road. It has since relocated and the prime real estate now houses the Shops at Sunset Place, one of the larger shopping facilities in South Miami. Adjacent streets are lined with boutique shops, restaurants of every conceivable cuisine, bakeries, old fashioned pizza parlor, gourmet groceries, ice cream parlor, banks and all the services a good neighborhood shopping district needs to make it truly one-stop-shopping.

The Metrorail station is within walking distance of High Pines so commuting to work can be an easy thing. Anyone who is tired of having to drive to most places will find this feature of High Pines a delight.

The lush flora in Florida is played up in High Pines. The densely canopied streets make strolling an enjoyable activity, even in the hot South Florida sun.

High Pines residences consist mainly of single family homes on sizable lots. There are also townhomes (many brand new luxury construction by Red Road) and garden type condos. There are presently 9 single family residences listed for sale in High Pines. The listings range in price from $349,000 to $2,199,000 with the average list price at slightly over $1,013,000.

If you're relocating to South Florida and the Miami area, I highly recommend giving the High Pines area more than a passing look.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Coral Gables Real Estate Market Report

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:30:06 -0400

Real Estate Market Report for Coral Gables - the City Beautiful

The following is a market snapshot of real estate activity in Coral Gables as of March 19th, 2010:

Active Listings (For Sale) - 473
Pending Listings (In escrow) - 91
Sold Listings (last 30 days) - 34

Of the Sold Listings, here is how the Days on Market (DOM) stack up:

0 - 30 Days - 32%
31 - 60 Days - 10.4%
61 - 90 Days - 11.2%
91 - 120 Days - 5.6%
120+ Days - 40.8%

Data is gathered from the SEF MLS and believed accurate, but not guaranteed.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Miami -Dade Cities - An Updated List

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:46:55 -0500

As I was helping someone verify the "official" cities in the Miami area, I put together this list. I thought I'd share it with you in case you've been losing sleep over whether a certain area is a city or not in Miami-Dade County. =)

The number represents the municipal code. If you live in the county and look up your address' "folio number" (which can be likened to the 'social security' number of a property), your folio number will begin with one of these 2 digits.

01 Miami
02 Miami Beach
03 Coral Gables
04 Hialeah
05 Miami Springs (a friend and resident aptly described it as the Mayberry of Miami. Lovely place)
06 North Miami
07 North Miami Beach
08 Opa-Locka
09 South Miami (this is the city name, sometimes applied erroneously to areas in South Miami-Dade)
10 Homestead (and you do NOT have to live in Homestead to claim the Homestead Exemption that the state of Florida has in place for property owners. Another source of confusion when discussing said exemption, which applies to the place you claim as your homestead)
11 Miami Shores (a shout out to my buddy Ines!)
12 Bal Harbour
13 Bay Harbour Islands
14 Surfside (can you guess where this is?)
15 West Miami (see South Miami above - same error pops up)
16 Florida City
17 Biscayne Park
18 El Portal (this is Spanish for "the front porch." I'll have to look up the history behind that. Ines?)
19 Golden Beach
20 Pinecrest (a favorite of mine)
21 Indian Creek (a nod to the original settlers of our area. MANY Indian names in Florida)
22 Medley
23 North Bay Village
24 Key Biscayne
25 Sweetwater
26 Virginia Gardens
27 Hialeah Gardens
28 Aventura
29 Islandia
30 Unincorporated Miami-Dade County (a repository for the rest of the county that has yet to incorporate itself)
31 Sunny Isles Beach
32 Miami Lakes
33 Palmetto Bay (another of my favorites)
34 Miami Gardens
35 Doral
36 Cutler Bay

So where does that leave "areas" like High Pines, Gables by the Sea, Snapper Creek, Kendall, The Redland, the Hammocks, Country Walk, and so many others? Technically, they are all part of unincorporated Miami-Dade county or a municipality listed above.

As of today's date (3/11/2010) the municipalities list is complete. However, the "areas" list is not. I may work on that list in the future and add a link here when I post it.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

LookRealty - Gaining Traffic as we build our Marketing Site

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:53:48 -0500

I don't usually relish reading every new email that comes into my mailbox hawking something new. Even if it's free.

But when I received John's email invitation to check out his new site and get in now, before someone else took my city, I checked it out.

I thought it was good enough to warrant joining. See below for details from John.

Via John Perkins - LookRealty (LookRealty.com):

Feel free to call me for questions. Think “Local Short News Blog” with a bit of simplified “Trulia” except more user friendly and fun. I’m a Realtor myself and owner of this new site http://LookRealty.com meant to bring free leads. Right now I'm offering Free For Life Promotion with no charge ever. All that's required is a 1 hour per month commitment to keep the site active so Buyers/Sellers have something to see on a regular basis. And… its easy! Best, John

1. I’m offering an Exclusive City (Free) on http://LookRealty.com – It's a Public website – Not a Social Networking site so the focus is geared towards sending information to your local community and getting leads.

2. We started on Jan. 21, 2010 and have 160 Agents (from CB, KW, Sotheby's, RE/MAX, ERA, C21, Assist2, J Rockcliff, Prudential….) across the country participating. To see how it works click on California, San Diego County, La Jolla. You will see Gary Giffin’s page. Gary takes Market Trends info each week and every other week does a short news blog (Gary likes to do more but is not required to. However, he has the highest hits of anyone because he is consistent).

Short blogs are about anything so can it can take you as short as 5 minutes to announce a festival or a great restaurant you like. Its all about making a connection with the community. You are the news! If you have a listing in another city you can cross market it on your page. This keeps the site active and the community interested in returning to see what's new and to hopefully make a connection with you for services. You can see the creativity of the members as you click in CA, AZ, UT, TX and FL to name a few states already gaining ground. If a state or county doesn't open it means that an agent has not signed up for that are as yet. This was done to prevent dead links going nowhere.

3. To see how fast we SEO you can type in Robynn Eccles in Google. You will see we are number 6 in line for her. This took 24 days with LR. She has more traffic now. Just looks good to Sellers and Buyers too. Robynn is not the only one to SEO with us. Many of our consistent members SEO quickly. Our fastest was Doug Hill, Realtor in 15 days.

4. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lookrealty.com#trafficstats –This is an independent site that shows how LR has grown in only 1 month. It’s really phenomenal what’s happening. In February LR had 677,000 Page Views. I can show you a webinar anytime so you can view these figures if you would like. Just send me a note of time you want to see them. Takes 5 minutes to show you the inside workings of LookRealty if you want.

5. I have bigger plans for the site but the key right now is to have the Realtors I personally invited sign up. Sign In/Up link (or Click) is at the very very bottom of the site and is in small gray font. It was meant to have the public focus on the site and not an “Agent Sign In Link”.

Need a reference? Ask any of the 160 agents and they will tell you how serious I am about getting this site to benefit their business. By the end of the year I expect LookRealty to become more powerful than many of the lead sites out there in Real Estate. So far so good! Join me as I go public next week to increase our traffic rank!

Regards,

John Perkins
http://LookRealty.com
(408) 469-7800

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.

Miami Redland Lychee Love

Pinecrest | Coral Gables| Maggie Dokic, SFR (Prudential Florida Realty) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:03:27 -0400

The season is upon us again. I love this time of year in the Miami Redland. May, June and July always mean there's lychees around somewhere in the Redland.

For those of you who may not know what a lychee is, I'll explain. Well, I'll give you my take on it. I was only introduced to them 4 years ago. They quickly became my favorite fruit. The fact that I can only enjoy them a short time each year makes them even more precious.

Lychees (pronounced lee-chees by most, and lie-chees by others) are also called (incorrectly) lychee nuts sometimes. They're not nuts at all and the seed is not edible. You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about lychees here.

Lychees are smaller than a ping pong ball and usually heart shaped. The skin is warty and leathery and breaks easily when you bite into it to get the fruit. The flesh of the fruit slides out easily and is reminiscent of a huge, luscious grape. Lychees are related to mamoncillos, or quenepas, if you know what those are. Lychees are native to China and I'm so glad they found their way over here. They are slightly acidic but sweet although not overly sweet.

I have 8 lychee trees in my yard but the hurricanes of 2 years ago have prevented us from getting much fruit. Last year we got none and this year only 2 of the trees produced, and very little at that. Lychee trees usually produce fruit only every other year but the hurricanes made our waiting time even longer.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving along 147th Avenue and gasped and pulled over. I gave my mother a terrible fright! She thought something was wrong, but no, something was RIGHT! There alongside the road was a farmer selling his lychees! At $5 a pound I only bought 2 pounds but would have bought more if I had had more cash on me. To demonstrate how popular lychees are around here I have to tell you that by the time I finished paying for my lychees, there were 6 other cars waiting to buy theirs. I asked him if he would be back the next day but he said he didn't have that many to sell. I understood totally. They're hard to find this year. That also explains the price. One can usually find them for $3/lb and at the end of the season even $2/lb.

I can't wait for next June!

Visit my blogsite.

The opinions expressed herein, are those of the author, and not necessarily of Prudential Florida Realty.